Editor’s Pick
This week, don’t miss Walter Isaacson’s deep dive into the sentence that birthed a nation: “We hold these truths to be self-evident … ”
Jeeves and the Well-Meaning Acolytes
A collection of 12 new stories about P. G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster—including tales by Roddy Doyle and Dominic Sandbrook—update the duo
The Wrecking Crew
Last week’s surprise demolition of the White House’s East Wing wasn’t the first time Trump destroyed a great American building
A Wrinkle in Time
Toni Morrison, Truman Capote, Patti Smith … A new coffee-table book collects Richard Avedon’s portraits of his aging subjects
Of Monsters and Mangione
For a window into the motive of UnitedHealthcare killer Luigi Mangione, one biographer delved deep into the world of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski’s admirers
There’s Something About Julie
How Walt Disney and the Sherman brothers landed on Julie Andrews for the role of Mary Poppins—without whom “A Spoonful of Sugar” would not exist
The Sky’s the Limit
From the Wright brothers’ near-fatal crashes to this year’s midair collision over the Potomac, failure has always been the cost of progress in aviation
Let’s Do the Time Warp Again!
With Halloween around the corner, music photographer Mick Rock’s behind-the-scenes images from the set of The Rocky Horror Picture Show offer a rare glimpse into the making of Richard O’Brien’s campy cult classic
Sam Shepard and the Blue Star Kachina
Inside the making of Operation Sidewinder, the playwright’s first and only drama to premiere on Broadway
Virginia Giuffre’s Last Words
An explosive account of alleged abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew is seeing the light of day six months after Giuffre’s suicide
The Making of Bruce Lee
A new book traces the actor’s journey from Hong Kong to Hollywood—and reveals how his career redefined Asian representation on-screen
Surreal Estate
A new coffee-table book chronicles the revival of Château Léoube, a 14th-century Provence estate transformed over the last decade by British billionaire Anthony Bamford and his wife, Daylesford Organic founder Carole Bamford
Deadly Pleasures to Read and Watch
Heroes and victims on the autism spectrum add a layer of complexity and cleverness to this month’s best mystery books and TV shows
The Man Behind the Monster
The little-known story of the Harvard professor whose sadistic experiments may have helped transform Ted Kaczynski into the Unabomber
The Beatnik and the Mobster
How did an unpublished story by Jack Kerouac end up in the possession of Gambino crime boss Paul Castellano?
Green Gold
A new book traces the history of the avocado, from a humble dooryard tree in Mexico to a global superfood phenomenon
Too Big to Fail’s Prequel, of Sorts
Andrew Ross Sorkin pieced together forgotten diaries and letters to reveal the Shakespearean characters behind the 1929 financial crash—and how they set the stage for Jamie Dimon and Elon Musk
Mad About the Girl
A new coffee-table book collects the photographer Sam Shaw’s never-before-seen pictures of his longtime friend and muse, Marilyn Monroe
Planes, Trains, Automobiles, and John Candy
A new biography pulls back the curtain on the Canadian comedian who died at just 43—and the role he turned down in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction
Harmonia Rosales
Known for re-creating Renaissance paintings with Black characters, the artist is now making her authorial debut to preserve African myths for future generations